The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is out with a new rule about how a state can go about assuming EPA's and the US Army Corps of Engineers' "dredge and fill" permitting responsibilities under Section 404 of the...more
12/17/2024
/ Clean Water Act ,
Dredge and Fill ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Florida ,
New Rules ,
Reversal ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
Trump Administration ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Wetlands
In the latest episode of the Mintz on Air: Predictions and Practical Policies Podcast, ESG Co-chair Jen Rubin moderates a forward-looking discussion on what businesses can expect for ESG, clean tech, and energy regulation...more
Sam Hess of Inside EPA and many others are writing about EPA's Halloween Trick or Treat – the publication of a draft Clean Water Act NPDES General Permit that would apply to “commercial, industrial and institutional”...more
Today the United States Supreme Court heard from lawyers representing the City and County of San Francisco and lawyers for the United States Environmental Protection Agency on the question of whether a “narrative standard”...more
3 1 8 Allie Reed of Bloomberg Law has published a thought-provoking piece on the effect of legal challenges to offshore wind projects and the Justice Department's and developers' responses to those challenges.
Some of...more
Lara Beaven of Inside PFAS Policy reports that Maine farmers have joined litigation against the Environmental Protection Agency for not yet regulating the presence of PFAS in sewage sludge. The plaintiffs in that litigation...more
Two Boston Globe stories I read this weekend on the rapidly shrinking island of Nantucket this weekend are worthy of your attention.
The first story is about EPA's consideration of a plan to intentionally dump 6600...more
Just when Federal agencies and Administrative Law Professors thought it couldn't get any worse, the current majority of our nation's highest court on Monday released a third opinion in less than a week further diminishing the...more
This morning our nation's highest court agreed to hear an appeal by seven Utah Counties and a railroad company of a DC Circuit Court of Appeals decision. That DC Circuit decision revoked the Surface Transportation Board's...more
Judge Boyle of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina has denied the Pacific Legal Foundation's client an injunction against EPA's and the Corps of Engineers' most recent Waters of the United...more
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is pressing ahead with its plan to ban Fast Ferries between the Massachusetts mainland and Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket between November 1st and May 30. I first wrote...more
Some of you may recall my earlier reports on Nantucket NIMBYs' efforts to deny local Chef Gabriel Frasca the opportunity to deliver fried food and soft ice cream to the Island's residents and visitors. These legal challenges...more
I was sad to see the Law 360 report that a coalition of environmental and human rights NGOs have petitioned President Biden to pardon former attorney Steven Donzinger who was jailed for criminal contempt of court in 2021,...more
Several “red” states and three energy industry NGOs have filed a motion for summary judgment in their Louisiana Federal Court challenge to EPA's 2023 rule regarding the state water quality certifications required under...more
As predicted in February, our nation's highest court is about to hear its third Clean Water Act in four years. Anyone who doubts the outcome of this case hasn't read the other two Supreme Court opinions and that brings to...more
5/29/2024
/ Appeals ,
Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Hawaii Wildlife Fund v County of Maui ,
NPDES ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
Storm Water ,
Wastewater ,
Water Quality ,
Waters of the United States
EPA issued a press release yesterday that caught my eye and if you're in the business of building things, including solar projects, it is worthy of your attention too. The press release announces a settlement between a solar...more
5/23/2024
/ Clean Water Act ,
Department of Environmental Protection ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Hawaii Wildlife Fund v County of Maui ,
Penalties ,
Pollution Control ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
Solar Energy ,
Storm Water ,
Water ,
Waters of the United States
Over the weekend The Boston Globe reported on the uniquely unfortunate situation in which the City of Boston finds itself as our oceans rise and coastal storms become more intense. You can always count on me to pass along...more
This week our nation's highest court was scheduled to discuss whether to hear the City and County of San Francisco's appeal of a split Ninth Circuit decision upholding an EPA NPDES permit issued to the City and County...more
Sam Hess of Inside EPA has a fulsome report on EPA's everything but the kitchen sink attempt to avoid a nationwide freeze of its most recent definition of Waters of the United States in litigation filed by a North Carolina...more
5/13/2024
/ Clean Water Act ,
Enforcement ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Hawaii Wildlife Fund v County of Maui ,
Navigable Waters ,
NGOs ,
Sackett v EPA ,
SCOTUS ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
The First Circuit Court of Appeals has finally ended the Nantucket Residents Against Turbines' lawsuit against the United States Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the...more
Less than ten days after setting drinking water standards for six of the hundreds of chemicals known collectively as PFAS, EPA has now identified two of those PFAS that have been widely used for decades, PFOA and PFOS, as...more
We're approaching the first anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Sackett v. EPA holding that, contrary to the view of EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers for the past 40 years, the Clean Water Act protects only...more
Juan-Carlos Rodriguez is reporting on DOJ's and EPA's brief arguing that the Supreme Court should leave alone a split Ninth Circuit decision upholding a NPDES permit condition prohibiting the permittee, the City and County of...more
EPA picked another Clean Water Act fight with the United States Supreme Court last week and I don't understand why EPA thinks it is a fight it can win. As many of you know, the jurisdictional reach of the Clean Water Act is...more
Law 360 is reporting on yesterday's hearing in the United States' litigation against the State of Texas to cause the removal of an unpermitted “marine barrier” placed by the State of Texas in the Rio Grande River. Putting...more